Singapore Zoo welcomes two more tree kangaroos

Two more tree kangaroos settled down in Singapore Zoo on Wednesday, making the zoo a home of four tree kangaroos in total.

They now live in the newly opened Goodfellow's tree kangaroo exhibit at the Australasian Zone.

Tree kangaroos stand among the rarest animals kept under human care, with only approximately 50 in zoos around the world.

The recent arrivals are Makaia and Nupela, who are selected as a couple to enhance the sustainability of the global population of this species.

As its name suggests, Goodfellow's tree kangaroos live in trees and have well-developed and muscular forelimbs, which serve them well when navigating their canopy homes in the forests of Papua New Guinea.

Makaia is already a star dubbed "miracle baby" in Australia. Makaia, whose name means magic in a Papua New Guinea dialect, came from Australia's Adelaide Zoo.

Nupela hailed from Sydney's Taronga Zoo, and was a local celebrity in her own right, being the first Goodfellow's tree kangaroo to be born in the Australian zoo in over 20 years.

Goodfellow's tree kangaroo numbers have dwindled drastically in the last century, and in 2012, the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) set up a Global Species Management Plan (GSMP) to ensure their survival.

Under the GSMP, participating zoos in Australia, Europe, North America, Japan, and Singapore would cooperate to enhance the sustainability of the global population under human care, and also act as an assurance population should there be a catastrophic decline in the wild. Endit